Paul Ryan Campaigns For Endangered Rep. Who Voted to Impeach Trump, Blasts GOP ‘Celebrities’ Helping Trump’s ‘Vengeance’
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) campaigned for Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) on Wednesday and pulled no punches in criticizing former President Donald Trump, who Rice voted to impeach after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“There were a lot of people who wanted to vote like Tom but who just didn’t have the guts to do it,” Ryan said of Rice’s vote to impeach Trump for the second time.
“There are a lot of people who say they’re going to vote their conscience, they’re going to vote for the Constitution, they’re going to vote for their convictions but when it gets hard to do that they don’t do it,” Ryan added while campaigning for Rice in South Carolina.
“Tom Rice is a man of conviction,” Ryan added. “Tom Rice is the kind of person you want in Congress.”
“This is just such a crystal clear case where you have a hard-working, effective, senior member of Congress who deserves reelection vs. people who are just trying to be celebrities who may be trying to help Trump with his vengeance,” Ryan argued, taking a swipe at the former president and current leader of the GOP.
“That’s not who voters want, voters want people focused on their solutions not on Trump’s vengeance and that to me is a really clear cut case here,” he added.
Rice defended his vote to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during a primary debate earlier in the month. Rice’s comments went viral in certain circles as he stood on principle, saying, “Democracy is a fragile thing and the one thing that we have to protect us from tyranny is our Constitution. And our Constitution has to be protected at all costs.”
In his primary debate, @RepTomRice makes the case for why we need to tell the truth and demand accountability for Jan. 6.
You’ll want to listen to the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/cfIhYhz2JJ
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) May 6, 2022
“My friends, I was there on January 6. I wasn’t absent. I was there,” he added. “I saw the bomb squads defusing bombs. I smelled the tear gas. I was on the House floor when the glass was breaking—when they were trying to break down the doors.”
Rice’s vote to impeach Trump came as a surprise for many as the conservative Congressman regularly votes along party lines.
Trump endorsed Rice’s primary opponent state representative Russell Fry in February of 2022.
